電

Translingual

Stroke order

Stroke order

Han character

電 (Kangxi radical 173, 雨+5, 13 strokes, cangjie input 一月田山 (MBWU), four-corner 1071₆, composition ⿱⻗⿻日乚(GTJKV) or ⿱⻗⿻日㇄(H))

Derived characters

• 𰃕

References

• Kangxi Dictionary: page 1373, character 5
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 42253
• Dae Jaweon: page 1882, character 8
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 6, page 4060, character 1
• Unihan data for U+96FB

Chinese

Wikipedia has an article on:

• 電

Glyph origin

Historical forms of the character 電
Western Zhou	Warring States
Bronze inscriptions	Chu slip and silk script

Phono-semantic compound (形聲／形声, OC *l'iːns) : semantic 雨 (“rain”) + phonetic 申 (OC *hlin); also ideogrammic (會意／会意) : 雨 + 申 (“lightning”).

Etymology

Sino-Tibetan or area word; compare Proto-Mien *liŋ (“lightning”), Chepang प्‍लीङ्‌हसा (pliŋh‑, “to flash; to shine brightly”) (Benedict, 1976; Schuessler, 2007).

Pronunciation

Definitions

電

1. (uncountable) lightning

   閃電／闪电  ―  shǎndiàn  ―  lightning

   電閃雷鳴／电闪雷鸣  ―  diànshǎnléimíng  ―  lightning flashes and thunder rumbles

2. (uncountable) electric power or energy; electricity

   我手機沒電了。／我手机没电了。  ―  Wǒ shǒujī méi diàn le.  ―  My phone is dead.

   我屋企而家冇電。 [Cantonese, trad.]
   我屋企而家冇电。 [Cantonese, simp.]

   ngo⁵ uk¹ kei² ji⁴ gaa¹ mou⁵ din⁶.

   The power at my place is currently out.

   我電腦冇電喇。 [Cantonese, trad.]
   我电脑冇电喇。 [Cantonese, simp.]

   ngo⁵ din⁶ nou⁵ mou⁵ din⁶ laa³.

   My computer is dead.

3. electric; electrical

   電腦／电脑  ―  diànnǎo  ―  computer (literally, “electric brain”)

4. (dialectal, countable) battery (Classifier: 粒 c; 嚿 c)
5. (colloquial, uncountable) romantic attraction; chemistry
6. Short for 電話／电话 (diànhuà, “telephone; phone call”).
7. Short for 電報／电报 (diànbào, “telegram”).

   唁電／唁电  ―  yàndiàn  ―  telegram of condolence

8. Short for 電臺／电台 (diàntái, “broadcasting station; radio station”).
9. (transitive) to give an electric shock to
10. (figuratively, of a person) energy
11. to make a telephone call
12. to send a telegram
13. ^† fast; speedy

Synonyms

Compounds

Descendants

• → Bouyei: dianq (“electricity”)
• → Lü: ᦶᦎᧃᧈ (ṫaen¹, “electricity”)
• → Tai Nüa: ᥖᥦᥢᥱ (tǎen, “electricity”)
• → Zhuang: den (“electricity”)

References

• “電”, in 漢語多功能字庫 (Multi-function Chinese Character Database)‎, 香港中文大學 (the Chinese University of Hong Kong), 2014–

Japanese

Kanji

(grade 2 “Kyōiku” kanji)

1. lightning
2. electricity

Readings

• Go-on: でん (den, Jōyō)
• Kan-on: てん (ten)
• Kun: いなずま (inazuma, 電)

Compounds

Definitions

Korean

Etymology

From Middle Chinese 電 (MC denH).

Pronunciation

• (SK Standard/Seoul) IPA^(key):
• Phonetic hangul:
  • Though still prescribed in Standard Korean, most speakers in both Koreas no longer distinguish vowel length.

Hanja

Korean Wikisource has texts containing the hanja:

電

Wikisource

電 (eumhun 번개 전 (beon'gae jeon))

1. Hanja form^? of 전 (“electricity; electric”).

Compounds

References

• 국제퇴계학회 대구경북지부 (國際退溪學會 大邱慶北支部) (2007). Digital Hanja Dictionary, 전자사전／電子字典.

Vietnamese

Han character

電: Hán Việt readings: điện

1. chữ Hán form of điện (“lightning, electricity”).

Compounds

References